10. Genussfest — Sussitz

• Outdoor
• Wine
• Producers
• Food
• October
• 2nd district

Sussitz occupies what was once a post office in the Karmelitermarkt, a building whose original vaulted ceilings emerged during renovation. The shop itself is a study in restraint: Georgian amphora wines next to Carinthian schnapps, arranged without the usual gallery-world theatre. The owners have spent a decade building relationships with small producers across Austria and beyond. This anniversary festival is their way of celebrating that work—not through a curated experience, but by inviting the makers themselves.

Vittorio Capovilla, the guest of honor, is known in the trade as Italy's grappa master. Since 1988, he's been distilling fruit using water-bath methods rather than open flame, a technique that allows precise temperature control and preserves the fine aromatics without bitterness. He also produces rum on Marie-Galante in the Caribbean, using heritage varieties and pure sugarcane juice. Meeting him at the tasting is genuinely rare.

Beyond Capovilla, roughly a dozen other small producers will be pouring: Ernst Triebaumer, Nero Wine & Food, Erwin Tinhof, Gollenz, and others—the faces behind the labels Sussitz has worked with for years. The afternoon is structured for conversation: you move between producers, taste, ask questions, eat more than you planned. No velvet rope, no gatekeeping, no sense that you need to know someone first.

The shop itself sits at the corner of Krummbaumgasse and Grosse Schiffgasse in the 2nd district, a neighbourhood that moves at its own pace. The Karmelitermarkt nearby is the kind of place where locals actually shop—not a destination market, just a working one.